When the Los Angeles Dodgers were defeated by the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night, it dropped them to 16-26 on the season and marked their sixth consecutive loss.
This loss wasn’t like many of the others though, as the Dodgers showed some life with a four-run rally in the sixth inning to erase a 5-1 deficit. But that tie score didn’t last long, as Pedro Baez served up a solo home run to J.T. Realmuto in the bottom half of the inning, resulting in the 6-5 loss.
Nonetheless, Justin Turner liked what he saw from the team fighting back to pull even. So much so that he believes it may serve as a bit of a turning point in the season, via Glenn Sattell of MLB.com:
“I thought the entire night, the way we played the game, intensity, running balls out, trying to create things, was a good step for us,” Turner said. “Obviously, we didn’t get the result, but if we can play like that and carry that intensity, and play that way as an offense, I think we’re going to win a lot more games.”
Turner may have been right as the Dodgers rebounded in a big way on Thursday afternoon, defeating the Marlins, 7-0, to avoid the sweep and snap their losing streak.
Turner had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two doubles, driving in five runs in the first four innings of the game. The five RBI matched a career high.
Getting Turner back has been a big boost for the Dodgers, even if it didn’t lead to wins in his first two games. He went 6-for-13 in the series, proving that he is still the elite hitter he was before fracturing his wrist during Spring Training.
The Dodgers now head to Washington for a big three-game weekend series with the Nationals. They have their work cut out for them facing Max Scherzer, Tanner Roark and Stephen Strasburg.